• Jeremiah out here, giving away the game. Hands me all my secret identity stuff with a chatty little "..don't be so formal! I just never thought I'd actually be able to help you. It's so..."
  
• Xavier better get out his sword again, information is happening
  
• "Silently, Xavier positions himself between Jeremiah and me."  boo-yah! god, i am really growing to like this guy the more i look past the soft voice.
  
• did Xavier just... just pierce my ear?!
  
• oh. secret transmitter. phew.
  
• they'll be able to track my location even if there's no signal. i'm going to end up in an abandoned warehouse being worked over by rough guys with rubber hoses, aren't i?
  
• aaaand a poison counteragent.  this is getting serious. and a needle with a knockout drug. lovely. i am armed for bear. and rubber hose guys.
  
• i don't think this is the time for a bouquet, bunny. but i appreciate the gesture? you better pay Jeremiah, he might also be sunshine but everybody needs money to eat.
  
• are these flowers weapon grade?
  
• "The girl's figure fades into the dawn. The light in the greenhouse dims like a fire on the verge of being extinguished."  please don't tell me Rafayel is lurking under the rhododendrons.
  
• Xaxier: "It's flawed." oookay, now THERE's a line out of nowhere. the plan? yes. its a deeply stupid plan but we're going with it because we're the Main Character, damn it.
  
• eeeeeeee!!! "Were you able to stay calm when you saw her for the first time?"   EEEEEEE! okay, hi, excuse me, just choking for a gleeful second. c'mon c'mon lay it ON ME already!
  
• Thank you Jeremiah for being not okay with just letting me go into the N109 Zone (implication: alone). You are my new favorite floral guy.
  
• "It will be safer compared to Linkon City in a few days."  What the fuck.
  
• oh my god, there's a Prime Directive going on.  excuse me "Non-Intervention Principle", or NIP.
  
• there we go. at least direct confirmation that my home exploded because of Nefarious Things, and hidden truths.
  
• okay, sure. i'll bite. how long HAVE you guys been here? and what's a Backtracker?
  

• "Don't you have the feeling that people's memories of us are also becoming fuzzier? Especially in recent years." Jeremiah, you're are SO going to get a sword to the throat in a minute, this is GREAT.  i have no idea what any of this MEANS but this is fantastic.
  

• You're here by mistake? EVEN BETTER.  poor stranded aliens.
  
• what do you mean you might be being erased (implied: from memory)? This isn't some Aeon Flux bullshit is it? oh wow, could it be Aeon Flux bullshit? i am thinking SO HARD.
  

• what in the bleeding hells is going ON here? hello, Caleb? or is that just a throwaway line for poetry.
  
• what the fuck is Traceback II??? my head so asplode here. there's more in this chapter it feels like than the rest of the main story up til this point, this is boggling.
  
• traceback, backtracker... are they trying to find people through time?
  
• oh no, just trying to communicate through the Tunnel. which, honestly, WOULD be trying to talk through time.
  
• "You will return in one piece. I'll make sure of it."  wow, Xavier. okay. lets just save your whole civilization, one florist at a time i guess.
  
• this isn't Philos and we're not truly immortal. wow. okay. how not quite immortal is not quite immortal? AM I HALF IN LOVE WITH AN ELF?
  

(05-04-2025, 11:31 PM)Coldsaturn Wrote: Now, before we do anything else, I'm going to ask for your trust and gently push you into doing something: go back to the very beginning of the game, chapter 1. Watch the starting cutscene again.

• Day 1326 target anchor lost no response from base Traceback 2 is about to pass the event horizon and enter the black hole -- we are stuck in this loop -- this never ending journey
  
• the radio DJ says "please enjoy this gift we received from Deepspace from 14 years ago. These electromagnetic signals have traversed time and space, a miracle of the ages. one day we will be able to evolve from our current limitations, transcend the boundaries of life and reach the stars. at a certain moment in the future we can pass through the Deepspace Tunnel and discover the future awaiting us."
  
• i.. don't really understand what that means, but its absolutely touching on everything revealed so far. if "Traceback 2" lost its anchor and fell into a wormhole, it went back to past that started again, a chain of events and time leading up to Traceback 2 again and a wormhole event sending it back to the past again, over and over?
  

•  there's a large pool covered in algae outside. if he swam a lot before, he's not doing it recently.
  
• the central mer-skeleton is mentioned as resembling a girl sitting crosslegged. i have no idea how you tell gender from an articulated skeleton but they said it, i noted it.
  
• Raymond's in his "collection room". Zayne's been here before, he's given permission to just go and he doesn't ask for directions
  
  

• okay, this must be the bit you were mentioning.  While I'm eavesdropping, Zayne says the remote monitor has "determined his age to be younger than what it actually is". odd phrasing. so Zayne's knows Raymond is older than the equipment says he is. Also, i didn't really think it important at the time but there's no avatar for Raymond, just a black shape.
  
• sounds like Raymond is head-hunting here. he's offering Zayne the best staff, best lab.. "even the best treatment". wow, stuff you don't clock when you start a game. and that whatever Zayne has accomplished to date, its nothing compared to what he could do (paraphrased). what he actually says is ".. just another beginning in your career".
  
• Zayne's hand has "countless faint scars". huh.
  
• oh, Raymond didn't die here, he's just unconscious. i guess some of me just really wanted him dead for some reason.
  
• description of the painting: "At the edge of the sea, the water is gradually stained crimson like something is being torn apart, swallowed, and coalescing into a blood clot."  well, there's some imagery!
  
• why am i trying to Resonate with it? am i a fool? i am a fool.
  
• and there's Rafayel's song. god, this is So Beautiful. no music, just singing and the sound of the ocean waves.
  
• there's a girl, half in the water (can't see her legs, they're in the water) - crying and laughing at the same time.
  
• it may not mean anything, but when Raymond's been airlifted to hospital with Zayne and I'm standing alone in the courtyard with the algae covered pool, i can hear whispered voices. this place is in the middle of nowhere, there shouldn't be the sound of people.
  
• so, let me guess. Raymond is one of Xavier's people, he captured one of Rafayel's people or fell in love with her or her with him, he kept her in the pool until she died and then he had her skeleton mounted for some really macabre reason.